Independent League baseball, best known these days as where Jose Canseco has gone to keep busy (when aliens arenât hacking his Twitter account), and where Jose Offerman once went to try to decapitate pitchers with a bat, is like the Island of Misfit Ballplayers, full of unheralded prospects trying to jump-start careers and old vets desperate for one last shot at the dance.Indy ball, the catch-all term for baseball leagues not affiliated with MLB or its minor leagues, provides dozens of small towns (your Bridgeports, your Joliets, your Sioux Cities) with an affordable way to see live, professional baseball. By most measures, itâs going stronger than ever: Attendance was up in 2011 in two of the biggest unaffiliated circuits, the American Association and the Atlantic League. In Central Islip, New York, an average of 5,537 fans filed into Bethpage Ballpark (next to a sprawling criminal-court complex) 60-plus nights this past summer to see the Long Island Ducks battle teams from Camden and Somerset, New Jersey, and York, Pennsylvania.
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